The rest of the month

Over the course of the month of March my 2 year old son and I spent alot of time out in the barn, scraping and sweeping up rust and breaking bolts and generally inhaling alot of PB Blaster. Most of it was pretty easy stuff, that would have been harder had things been rustier than they are. The tailgate came off easily and the hinges were all in good shape. The front clip was simple too once I took off the front fenders, just remember to disconnect the radiator and shroud first and the hood too. With that off, the windshield frame is next. It was mainly clumsy for one person to remove due to the weight of the glass. And being broken, it was a chore getting it off without slicing up my hands. But luckily, the frame unlike many others that I've heard of is in good shape with no rust through spots. It really is just a matter of unscrewing bolts, which as I said were mainly in good shape. The bolts underneath the body securing it to the frame attachment points were another matter...


The disappointment was the tool box. I was hoping that this rust catcher beneath the jeep was in better shape, but that wasn't to be. It looked as though a previous owner had spent time patching in aluminum panels and then applying some sort of body filler over the seams. It just added up to be a mess that I partly peeled and muscled out. Eventually I poked through the paper-thin floor beneath with a screwdriver and I knew that I had hit rock bottom. well, it looks like replacement panel time.



Hey, at least I made thirty cents off taking the gas tank out! I found these two underneath it. the gas tank was a matter of draining out the remaining foul smelling varnish that was left in the tank from the drain plug and then I had to cut through the gas line with a tubing cutter. The fitting was too rusted to ever move. But, the tank wasn't salvageable anyways, I figure. It stills sloshes around with the sound of pounds of rust inside hitting the interior baffles. A decent replacement of poly or steel is going to set me back more than a 100-150 bucks.


The floor, especially on the driver's side was pretty swiss cheesy too. well, I figure that I have to figure out how to weld with this project and I'm going to weld in new floor panels. At least the hat channels underneath the floor are in pretty good shape.


The busted nuts and bolts so far. each worth more than a few drops of sweat. I'm not going to try to reuse an awful lot of hardware anyways. A cheap investment.